Far below the city of Neverwinter are passages leading through the Underdark to the Whispering Caverns, an underground labyrinth of forgotten tunnels. The dark elves have returned here to reclaim their stronghold, evil dwarves work deep mines, and the illithid plot to unleash an ancient evil. Conquering the Whispering Caverns zone will be no easy adventure…

The Whispering Caverns is the highest-level adventure zone currently available for Neverwinter’s Open Beta launch, with many monsters at the level cap of 60. The zone is situated in the Underdark, so players will go from rough-hewn caves to giant underground cities to strange alien environments.

The drow city of Zesraena located here used to be abandoned, but now the drow of House Xorlarrin have returned to it. They’ve also allied with other Underdark races, including the hateful gray dwarves known as the duergar, and the insidious mind flayers.

The duergar’s Steelshear Mines were built on an incredibly rich seam of minerals worked by duergar thralls for their mind flayer masters. Some claim that this must be a gateway to long-lost Gauntlgrym itself. If adventurers can finally locate the dwarven city, all the power of its treasures could be brought to Neverwinter and used against Valindra’s undead hordes.

In the deepest parts of the Whispering Caverns are the strange bismuth structures known as the Upper Vaults. Here the horrible squid-like mind flayers – also known as illithids – use their powerful psionic abilities to make thralls of other races. Here, some humanoid thralls serve as slaves for their mind flayer masters, while the less fortunate thralls have their brains used as food for the illithid.

Judging by rumor, mind flayers from throughout the Underdark are gathering here, to free something from an ancient prison. If the drow have made an alliance with them, they must be both desperate and very, very foolish.

This is the first zone where players encounter the mind flayers, and the Neverwinter art team wanted to showcase the horror that’s made them iconic Dungeons & Dragons monsters. Their region of the Whispering Caverns is dominated by bismuth, a real-world crystal that grows in stair-step structures. Like the mind flayers themselves, the bismuth growing from cave walls is perfectly natural – but also horrifyingly alien.

Facing the drow priestesses and the horrors of the mind flayers in the Whispering Caverns will put heroes to the test – will you answer the call to adventure in Neverwinter?